LAUSD Providing Better Teachers to All Schools, Judge Concludes

A California superior court judge has dismissed a consent decree against the Los Angeles Unified School District that prompted efforts to upgrade teacher quality in poor schools.

The consent decree stems from a 1986 lawsuit, Rodriguez v. LAUSD, in which the plaintiffs argued that many schools in poor neighborhoods were disadvantaged because they had high numbers of inexperienced teachers.

As part of the consent decree, which took effect in 1991, the 747,000-student district provided additional funds—a total of about $11 million—to those schools to pay for more professional development for less-qualified teachers.

In addition, according to a statement from the district, recent “intensive teacher-recruitment efforts have resulted in dramatically improving the number of highly qualified teachers at all LAUSD schools.”

In her decision, Judge Joanne O’Donnell turned down a request from the plaintiffs to extend the consent decree for another five years.